As Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2018 kicks off today in Florida, ChannelE2E will be watching closely to see how the distributor evolves its overall cloud platform empowerment strategy for partners. Among the five potential developments we’ll be watching closely…

VMware’s Sanjay Poonen

Microsoft’s Gavriella Schuster

1. Potential Partnerships – IaaS: Although Ingram arrived to the cloud market earlier than many of its distribution rivals, the company has yet to make major noise in the IaaS market. Perhaps that’s about to change. Last I heard, both Microsoft Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster and VMware COO Sanjay Poonen will be on hand at the conference. Purely a hunch, but perhaps that means specific Microsoft Azure and VMware Cloud on AWS partnerships could emerge at the event. That would be good news for Ingram partners, especially since rival distributors like Tech Data (via the Avnet Technology Solutions acquisition) and Pax8 (a startup) have growing IaaS strategies in place.

Workday’s Phil Wilmington

SAP’s Bill McDermott

2. Potential Partnerships – Business Applications: Ingram already is a leading cloud distributor for Microsoft Office 365. So what could be next on the SaaS front? Perhaps the answer involves SAP and Workday cloud applications. Both SAP CEO Bill McDermott and Workday Co-President Phil Wilmington are scheduled to speak, last I heard. Just another hunch, but I suspect we’ll see Ingram announcing formalized SaaS relationships with each firm, particularly in the midmarket.

3. Ingram’s Cloud Software: I haven’t heard anything specific, but this is an ideal stage for Ingram to potentially announce Odin and Ensim upgrades. The software platforms provide the underlying code for Ingram’s own cloud marketplace. Moreover, scores of telcos and third-party application marketplaces run Ingram’s code.

Ingram’s Renee Bergeron

Ingram’s Alaine Monie

4. The Bigger Picture: Ingram CEO Alain Monié is expected to be on-hand at the conference. Last I heard, Ingram Micro Cloud was managing more than 10 million customer seats. It’s a safe bet we’ll get some updated deployment figures — either from Monié or perhaps from Renee Bergeron, senior VP, global cloud.

eFolder’s Jason Bystrak

5. Third-Party ISVs: Ingram has longstanding relationships with dozens of cloud, security, storage and IT monitoring software providers. Among the ones we’ll be watching most closely: eFolder, which offers business continuity and data protection platforms to MSPs. Ingram Cloud veteran Jason Bystrak joined eFolder earlier this year, and he’s expected to surface at the event. We’ll ping him for updates.